The Hawthorne Police Department will update its policies affecting interactions with deaf people as part of a lawsuit settlement with a deaf man who claims he was mistaken for a burglary suspect and beaten last year.

Jonathan Meister and the Greater Los Angeles Agency on Deafness Inc. will receive a $55,000 settlement along with a pledge that the department will update its policies in communicating with the deaf, according to the settlement approved Tuesday by the City Council.

Meister is still seeking a civil financial settlement for the Feb. 12, 2013, incident in which officers used a stun gun to subdue him. He was packing his car with belongings stored at a friend’s house in the 3500 block of West 147th Street when a neighbor mistook him for a burglar and called police.

Four officers responded to the location and called out to Meister, who gestured that he couldn’t hear.

The two sides differ over what happened next.

Meister alleges he was brutalized by the officers as he tried to communicate with them, so he ran away. A struggle ensued, in which officers reported that Meister grappled with them and, in one case, pulled an officer’s hair. Meister said the fight stemmed from miscommunication because he was claustrophobic and panicked, but officers say he aggressively resisted.

Hawthorne Police Chief Bob Fager said the settlement does not admit fault by the department and that the agency was in the process of updating its policies in dealing with deaf people. The new policy includes providing qualified interpreters to jailed deaf suspects, a booking video and transcript to describe the arrest process, and a video or TTY phone.

“This brought a renewed awareness to both the initial contacts as well as subsequent custody interaction and focuses on policies that best allow a deaf person to communicate in each of those settings,” Fager said. “We had an expert come out and give a presentation to officers in dealing with hearing-disabled people.”

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